Simple, Specific, Slow, Short, and Success - The Five "S"s of Great Practice

[Shindig]

3 minutes ago, Rsuslow said:

There is a lot of good information and opinions in this thread.

About a year ago I lost my swing and have been working to get it back and improve since.

After reading an article and seeing a YouTube video of Been Hogan practicing at like 10% (the ball only went a few feet) I tried the slow swings but I find it very difficult. I think it is because I don't know if I'm even doing what I want to work on correctly.

There are a few things I've read in this thread that I plan to use in my next practice session.

I continuously struggle with the "slow" aspect of it.  I can do a slow backswing and a slow downswing, provided I stop at the ball.  Trying to do a slow swing that makes contact and does something... yikes. I was able to do it yesterday, finally, with a driver... and I wasn't pulling it like my normal miss.  I might even try that during a round at some point.

Keep us updated with how things progress.  You're right that things are difficult and getting feedback on your priority piece helps quite a bit.

Welcome to TST by the way.

[iacas]

Success, simple, specific right there, from the book…

Practice Perfect: 42 Rules for Getting Better at Getting Better.

(I've just started reading the book, so I can't comment on it right now, yet, but I am excited to read it, and the reviews are very good.)

[Dextra]

I just joined the TST.  I love the game and look forward to getting better.  I plan to follow all of the topics and discussions to that end.  Birdies and eagles for everyone!

[JonMA1]

Welcome to the forum @Dextra. 

[boogielicious]

20 hours ago, iacas said:

Success, simple, specific right there, from the book…

Practice Perfect: 42 Rules for Getting Better at Getting Better.

(I've just started reading the book, so I can't comment on it right now, yet, but I am excited to read it, and the reviews are very good.)

Did you get the hardcover? 

[iacas]

17 minutes ago, boogielicious said:

Did you get the hardcover? 

Yes.

Why?

[boogielicious]

Just now, iacas said:

Yes.

Why?

I'm going to get it an I'm trying to decide which one to get. I think I will go with the hardcover too.

[saevel25]

8 minutes ago, boogielicious said:

I'm going to get it an I'm trying to decide which one to get. I think I will go with the hardcover too.

I went with the kindle edition.

 

[boogielicious]

Just now, saevel25 said:

I went with the kindle edition.

 

I'm old school I guess! Or maybe just OLD!

[nevets88]

Ya'll are forgetting about your public library - I could buy it but like visiting the library. You might get lucky and it'll have an ebook edition and there's no queue. On hold and waiting will check out the sample pages via the big A.

[JonMA1]

While working to improve key #2, I see a little success in video but at the same time, I see some reversion back to other bad habits...hip sway, 80° turn, hands going too far behind and not getting much higher at the top than A3. I can make good contact and get good distance with this swing, but also experience poor contact at times. 

I know the whole idea is to keep it simple, but at some point I have to address those issues. Are the following steps over-complicating the process? 

1. Since Key #2 is still my priority, any work I do to correct another issue must not hurt the success I've made with that priority.

2. Try to identify a correction to one of those bad habits that may also have a positive impact on fixing another. For example, extending the arc of my swing (sorry, it's a feel) helps with both getting a fuller turn and getting my hands higher at the top.

3. Proceed slowly and disregard contact, at least at first.

4. Analyze video.

5. If video confirms some success, find a way at a slow pace to improve contact, while making sure I don't start going back to the old habits.

---

Finally, if I get to the point of success at full speed during practice, how do I ingrain the success for use on the course? Is it a matter of repeating it at full speed during every practice? That's different than mindlessly hitting golf balls, correct?

[iacas]

13 hours ago, JonMA1 said:

I know the whole idea is to keep it simple, but at some point I have to address those issues. Are the following steps over-complicating the process? 

1. Since Key #2 is still my priority, any work I do to correct another issue must not hurt the success I've made with that priority.

2. Try to identify a correction to one of those bad habits that may also have a positive impact on fixing another. For example, extending the arc of my swing (sorry, it's a feel) helps with both getting a fuller turn and getting my hands higher at the top.

3. Proceed slowly and disregard contact, at least at first.

4. Analyze video.

5. If video confirms some success, find a way at a slow pace to improve contact, while making sure I don't start going back to the old habits.

---

Finally, if I get to the point of success at full speed during practice, how do I ingrain the success for use on the course? Is it a matter of repeating it at full speed during every practice? That's different than mindlessly hitting golf balls, correct?

You pick a priority piece. You work on that in a slow, specific, success, etc. method. You periodically evaluate your practice (particularly to make sure you're doing it correctly), and then you re-evaluate the overall priority at some point as well.

If some HORRIBLE thing comes up, you can divert attention to it for the short term, but basically, your priority is your priority.

[Marty2019]

I'm revisiting this topic because I really need to do this more. 

Next time I go to the range, I swear I am going to discipline myself and follow the 5 S method.  I'll be working on getting my right arm and right elbow into the correct position on the down swing. 

It takes a lot of discipline, though.  Especially when there are other people on the range and they're seeing you hit 20 yard shots with a 6 iron. 

Great topic. 

 

[iacas]

25 minutes ago, Marty2019 said:

It takes a lot of discipline, though.  Especially when there are other people on the range and they're seeing you hit 20 yard shots with a 6 iron. 

It does.

[nevets88]

50 minutes ago, Marty2019 said:

I'm revisiting this topic because I really need to do this more. 

Next time I go to the range, I swear I am going to discipline myself and follow the 5 S method.  I'll be working on getting my right arm and right elbow into the correct position on the down swing. 

It takes a lot of discipline, though.  Especially when there are other people on the range and they're seeing you hit 20 yard shots with a 6 iron. 

Great topic. 

 

Screw what other people think. Most of them aren't exactly pillars of good effective practice anyway and a nontrivial amount would prefer to shoot the breeze. Go to the end of the range and create some privacy if you can.

[marxkala]

I should have seen this post yesterday before going to driving range. Really needed that reminder to make my time there more valuable and actually improve my game

[carri10]

On 12/24/2011 at 7:24 PM, iacas said:

The Talent Code is a good book, but the message it preaches is quite simple: to become great at something, some ways seem to be better than others. Whether you're a violinist, a soccer player, or a tennis player, you can practice things in a way that makes you improve faster than mindlessly playing songs, kicking balls, or turning on the automatic ball server.

 

Take for example the story of a violinist that stood out to me. Upon learning a new piece, this violinist would play the notes without regard for pace, duration, tempo, or artistry. She'd take the sheet music and simply play the notes in the proper order. It rendered the song unrecognizable. When she encountered a tough part - a tough finger change or something - she'd slow down even more and practice that part again. She'd start at the beginning of the song, play through until she made a mistake, and restart. Each time she'd get farther into the song and the more she played a particular section the more like the song it would sound because she'd played it - correctly - tens or hundreds of times before.

 

This process took weeks. She might spend an hour working on a particular three-note sequence. Towards the end of the time she was technically proficient enough that she could use her "educated hands" to add "artistry" or "feeling" to the notes. The violinist succeeds fastest and makes the greatest progress by making thousands of tiny mistakes but instantly correcting them. This converts those thousands of errors into thousands of successes or, if you prefer, thousands of learning experiences. The violinist was constantly practicing at the edge of her ability, and in doing so, keeps expanding her talent's horizon.

 

Golfers, by and large, suck at practice. The better players will tend to do more than "hit some wedges to loosen up, then hit 50 drivers in a row and leave" but not much.

 

A guy was hitting some balls in our downtown building the other day. He's a +1 or so, and he was hitting the ball poorly. He said "I just don't have it today. It doesn't feel right." So why was he hitting balls? I doubt he could have told you. "Because" isn't a good answer! Instead of mindlessly hitting balls hoping to "find" something, we told this guy to work on a drill. Make the longest swing he could make, the fastest he could make it, feeling that it was completely under control and that felt right. If that was a four-yard chip shot, so be it. Build up from there. Practice at the edge of your ability, not beyond it. That day, this player's talent horizon had shrunk a bit, so he was doing himself no good practicing beyond the edge of it. He was learning nothing from his failures except that if he kept it up, he'd continue to fail. There was no learning, and thus, no success.

 

A near-scratch golfer responded that he hates working on the range because he feels like a 20 handicapper, and my response was perhaps a bit too firm in saying that he was practicing wrong. Oftentimes, I'll be perfectly happy to hit shanks, top the ball, hit it thin, or otherwise hit some terrible looking shots so long as I'm improving (or often exaggerating) certain moves. In that sense, the moves I'm making are equivalent to the violinist's fingerings, and the unrecognizable song is the shank or cold top.

 

In that thread, I said "simple, slow, and short." I'm adding a fourth and a fifth "S" word to the list: "specific" and "success."

 

Simple - It's absolutely critical to boil down the thing you're working on to its most basic state.

 

Specific - "I want to improve my footwork" is not specific. "I want to bank my right foot inward more to prevent my right knee from kicking in towards the golf ball on my downswing" is better.

 

Slow and Short - These two go together and speak to practicing at the edge of your ability. If you're changing the way your right elbow works in transition, you're not going to do this at speed. If you're working on how your wrist hinges from P1 to P2, why swing past P2.5? Just swing to P2 - slowly - and chip the ball.

 

Success - If you can have a simple, specific idea, and practice it with slow and/or short swings at the edge of your ability, constantly making small mistakes with instant corrections, you'll have success with every swing you take.

 

One thing I didn't exaggerate in the post I made: when I'm working on something (which is virtually any time I'm not "warming up" for a round):

• My pace drops substantially. I'll hit one ball every few minutes. The time between is spent looking in the mirror, at the video, rehearsing a practice move, or thinking.
• I don't care about distance, direction, contact quality, etc. I'll almost never hit a ball over 75-80% of its normal distance. Most often, because I'm reasonably skilled, my shots will still be "okay" because I can "find the golf ball," but one of the best swings I've made (and posted) resulted in a cold shank. I have faith in my ability to change the swing and then very quickly "find the golf ball" again. Develop that faith in yourself, just as the violinist has faith in her ability to speed things up and still hit the notes.

 

When you're practicing properly, the song may be unrecognizable, but you're doing the right things and improving the fastest.

 

 

 

 

Good advice and oh so easy to forget.  I found myself at the range the other day, hitting it really well (for me) and just got caught up in hitting well and admiring the results.  Completely failed to make any progress on the thing I was working on (left should down in back swing).  Effectively a waste of a precious hour.

 

[JonMA1]

A couple question about range work (for anyone)... At some point in the session, do the short swings become full swings? Do you take what you've been working on for most of the hour and see if it can be applied at full speed?